Stuff... Update

As I sit here starring at this blank page I am trying to decide how to start off my new post. I am posting because it's been awhile since my last post, baby could come at any time (which would most likely mean some more time would pass before another post), and I have some time on my hands.

I was very pleased with myself for finally clearing off my kitchen table (it's needed it for, oh about 3 weeks now) and then moving the table lengthwise along the wall to give us more room for the impending water birth. I also swept and mopped the kitchen floor and did some laundry. I must say, it always feels so good to get my house in good order!

This week we also moved Scott's desk from our bedroom to the baby's room to make room for the Cradle in our room. Everything fit just perfectly, and now we really feel "ready" for the baby. That is, as ready as we'll ever be. It is only by God's grace that we will be good, godly parents.

Now for an update on the pregnancy....

The day of my prenatal appointment this past week, my feet were more swollen then they'd ever been and I had gained 7 pounds in 1 week. (Yes, that freaked me out!) So as a result of that (and other things) I went and got some blood work done to check my iron, blood cell counts, etc. Everything was right where they should be which was very nice and since my appointment I went down a pound, and have stayed just below that initial amount the past 5 days instead of climbing over the course of the week. Of course, I have also been doing more exercising this week (as in daily) compared to last week (which was once or twice).

Now on to the baby... :) Baby seems to be posterior, which means it's facing toward the front instead of toward my back. However, it is also very active and a lot of the times feels like it lying on my side more then anything. So, we will just wait and see. When a baby is posterior that means that you have a lot more back labor (which is more uncomfortable than normal labor).

On Thursday night I had a good 3 1/2 hours of contractions that were more than the normal braxton hicks, but as you can see (due to lack of pictures, etc.) although they were close together, they weren't very consistent and eventually died off. Even though I was very disappointed that they didn't get more intense I know my body is prepping itself for labor (which is coming since I am 38 weeks, 4 days along now) and as my midwife encouraged me, I am enjoying my last days of just me and my Hubby. :)

Another exciting thing for me this week was that my Mom found me a three maternity shirts (sizes M, L, and XL) on clearance that she surprised me with! Everywhere I've gone I haven't found anything, and I was refusing to spend more than $15 on a shirt that I'd only wear for a few short weeks. The size M shirt is a little short (although longer than all my other maternity shirts) and so I will no doubt get more wear out of it over the first couple months after the baby is born and then save it for the next pregnancy. The other two shirts are nice and long and look nice (of course the fact that they don't have any stains on them... yet.... is very nice) and it just totally made my week to be able to have 2 new shirts in particular that are comfortably loose, and don't look so "drab". :) My Mom is so great!!!!

Head on over to my Etsy shop: HandMaidGifts and check out the new baby blanket that I added here.

Okay, I think that's about all for now. Don't forget to do something special for your spouse (or a family member) today, "just because" and enjoy your weekend. :)

SMILE

Smile. Lately my darling husband has had to remind me to smile more often than I realized was necessary. What I mean is that I hadn't realized that I hadn't been smiling as much. During the first trimester I was feeling pretty miserable every day and so I know that I must not have been smiling as much. Sad to say, I think it started becoming a habit. When I'm looking at things in a store or just sitting around relaxing, I have not been smiling. The thing is, I have so many reasons to smile. My Husband, the Baby, family, how God is continuously showing Himself to me, good friends, and so many, many other things. So I asked myself, "why aren't I smiling?" Do you know what my answer was? "I don't know." I try to make some lame excuse only to realize that it isn't even valid.

I think that sometimes we get so caught up in all that is going on around us and where we are, thinking about what's going on now, what has happened in the past, the future, or whatever that we forget to smile and think about all that God is doing and be thankful. It takes such few muscles to smile and we never know how our smile may be blessing someone else.

So, just smile. Think of one thing you can smile about and let it radiate through you! :)

The Bread of Idleness

I know it's been a while since I shared something with you from my study on A Woman After God's Own Heart, but the truth is, over the last couple weeks, I haven't been doing that study much, as I was just doing some great reading in God's word and a lot of writing in my Prayer Journal. But today I went back to my study. Of course, not even a full minute went by before the Lord was taking me deep inside my heart to take take an honest look at myself.

The chapter I am on is A Heart That Watches Over The Home. Proverbs 14:23 says, "In all labour there is profit: but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury." (Penury = Extreme poverty or destitution)

There is profit in labour.

Proverbs 31:27 says, "She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness."

The Proverbs 31 woman, does not eat the bread of idleness.

From these two verses, we gather 2 very important pieces of wisdom, that go together. If there is profit in labour, than what is there in idleness? Nothing. Nothing at all. Think about it, what does our attitude become when we are idle? I know for me, I get a little miserable, and I have a pretty bad attitude toward everything and everyone around me. Sometimes it only shows itself in the most subtle of ways, but at other times, it is not so subtle.

In the chapter of Elizabeth George's book that I was studying today, she talks about how she applied this to her life, and is always busy, doing something, all day long. Yes, she would give herself time for a break, but she always knew what she was doing thereafter. One thing that really spoke to me, was how she said that when her girls were young, she worked hard to instill that principle in them. For example, they didn't watch TV unless they were doing something productive at the same time.

As I reflected on all the thoughts that came rushing to my mind, I remembered a time when I was always doing knitting or crocheting when I was watching something (I would even take it to the movie theater with me), because I could not justify spending a couple hours or so just sitting doing nothing, when I knew I could find something to do. I'm sorry to say that I've lost that principle, and I intend to get it back!

Elizabeth mentioned that as a result of the above, none of them derived much pleasure from watching TV. They could take it or leave it. That is how it should be. The TV is just an entertainment "gimmick" to keep us lazy, eating from the bread of idleness. As Christians, there is so much more to our lives. We have so much to live for, in Christ. We should not be able to be entertained by the TV for hours, doing nothing, without feeling very guilty. There is NO profit in idleness!!!!! This post is not all about the TV, that is just an example, and one that is very dominant in our culture. How many people do you know who have their TV on all day, and whenever their kids start to get in their way, they tell them to go watch a show or something? I know more than I should.

In addition to focusing on the fact that there is profit in labour (even if we don't always see it), we need to be working on eliminating idleness. I would like to share with you a list of "time robbers" that Elizabeth shared in her book:

• Procrastination


• Inadequate personal planning and scheduling


• Interruptions by people without appointment (This includes interruptions by way of the telephone. And please note, your children are not interruptions - they are your greatest work and the best investment of your time)


• Failure to delegate


• Poor use of the telephone


• Reading junk mail


• Lack of concern for good time management


• Unclear priorities

I encourage you, along with myself, to take a few minutes and examine areas in your daily life where there is idleness. Then, work on eliminating them. And remember, to trully eliminate something, even just to begin working on it, we must first take it to the Lord.

New Jersey

Wow, does time get away from me! I can't believe we're already about to leave New Jersey! It has been 5 days since we left our beloved Connecticut. I am pleased to announce that there were no tears. They came very close to breaking through, but I held them back and made it out the door without allowing them to fall. Albeit, the last 2 minutes of saying "goodbye" to my family was a bit "rushed" as my Sister put it, but I did not want to start crying when we were so close to the door. I hugged my parents one last time and almost broke down, but I smiled and said "see you soon." :) God definately knew what I was going to need, because as it turned out, at the time that we were ready to say goodbye to my family on Thanksgiving night, my 11 cousins, 2 aunts, 1 uncle, and Grandparents were all there and half of the family were watching a funny movie and everyone else was playing games, playing with toys, or whatever. It definately helped that everyone was a little distracted. 5 months isn't that long, and with the technology that we have, it is very easy to stay in touch with our loved ones. Besides, it is always better leaving everyone with cheerful attitudes than being emotional and all sad when there really is no need for it.

4:oo Friday morning came very quickly for me, but I was up and in the shower by 4:05. Scott was up and ready for the day by the time I was done and we got what little stuff was left all gathered up before taking a few minutes to eat breakfast and chat with his family before we left. However, being SO early in the morning and the fact that although my body was functioning, it wasn't fully awake, I was not able to eat more than a few bites of oatmeal before feeling a little sick. Scott went outside to hook up the trailer while I finished getting things ready, and we discovered that it was POURING outside! We said goodbye and made it to the book signing in Waterford safely, and by 2:45 we SOLD THEM OUT! We did take a long break mid-morning for some breakfast. :)

We arrived safely in New Jersey around 6:15, quite tired! :) The past 5 days have been great! Our Hostesses have been terrific, and we are so blessed to have been able to stay with them.

Tomorrow morning we'll be heading to Beaver Falls, PA and then on to IN on Thursday!

Over the past week I have been thinking about how blessed I am to have my Husband. I love him with my whole heart and can't thank the Lord enough for putting him in my life. I love watching and listening to Scott as he talks to different people about his book and I am so proud of him for following his dream. Back in the begining of our relationship we were researching the possibility of starting our own Publishing House and what that would mean for us. I am SO glad that I encouraged him to follow his dream and not to let anything deter him from doing what he needed to do even if it was a risk. To all you married women, I encourage you to take a moment and thank God for your Husband. And be specific! Don't just say "thank you Lord, for my Husband." Think about the things you appreciate about your husband and be specific in your prayer.

Attitude and Challenges

I apologize to all my blog readers that it has been so long since I last posted. The past week and a half have been quite full and I have not spent a lot of time on the computer (which, contrary to what some believe, is not necessarily a bad thing).

Last Friday (November 6th) I took my sister Ice Skating to celebrate her 13th birthday (which isn't until December, but since I won't be here, we had to celebrate it early). We had a blast! There were a couple people on the rink when we got there, but they left while we were putting our skates on, and we had the whole rink to ourselves, the entire time we were there! We had such a great time!

Yesterday Scott spoke to over a hundred students (4-8th grade) at a school. As always, I was amazed at how good my husband is with kids and how well he spoke. I wasn't surprised, but once again, I thanked the Lord for giving me such a good man, for my Husband. I am truly blessed.

If anyone is interested in a 30-day challenge, I encourage you to go to the Revive Our Hearts website and consider taking 1, or maybe even 2 of the challenges there. I have taken the Husband Encouragement Challenge, and the Choosing Gratitude Challenge. Every day I get an email from both challenges with encouragement and goals/challenges for the day.

The Lord has been working in my heart on having an "Attitude of Gratitude." I have no idea how this all started, or even when. All I know is that the Lord has slowly been laying on my heart different things to think about or to work on, and it's brought me to where my goal is to have a thankful heart.

Here are a couple of questions that you can ask yourself to see where your attitude is at:

When something unexpected (or unplanned) happens, how do I respond? Am I able to switch gears, be flexible, and eagerly "go with the flow"? Or do I feel resentment or bitterness that my plans now have to be changed?

When a child breaks something (just by accident), that perhaps was even very dear to you, do you scold them and send them to their room after insisting they clean it up by themselves? Or do you bend over to help them, letting them know that it's okay, you understand it was just an accident, and it's not that important?

Our heart attitude effects how we respond. Look at how you respond to "big" things, and then you'll know how you're responding to little things. I've written more on attitudes here. I have found that it is very easy to let little things bother me, or to let my attitude be effected by the attitudes around me. So I have worked very hard on not being bothered by little things and not letting others determine what my attitude is going to be.

Therefore, one of the things the Lord has been teaching me, is that keeping my focus on Him and on being thankful, taking every situation (even the smallest ones) and finding something I can be thankful for, keeps my attitude, and my heart where it needs to be, with God on the throne!

Submission (continued)

If you missed my earlier post on submission, you can read it here.

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

"Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."

Ephesians 5:22-24

I have not been married long and I don't pretend to know all the answers. I'm just sharing what I learn as the Lord teaches me.

In my Devotions this morning (still studying submission) one of the passages of scripture was Ephesians 5:22-24 (above). It is my choice, as a wife to be submissive. People can tell me that I need to be submissive, or I can read that I need to be submissive, but unless I make a choice to do so, I will not be submissive. And who am I supposed to be submissive to? My husband. Ephesians 5:22 says "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands..." As Elizabeth George put it, the "Who of submission, is our husbands." Now about the how.

The last part of verse 22 tells us how to submit: "as unto the Lord." The root of submission is submitting to God. Colossians 3:23 says:

"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men."

In every thing that I do (including submission), I need to do it as to the Lord. If my focus is on submitting to the Lord, than I will be submissive to my husband. God placed my husband as the head over me, as He is head of the Church. Yes, I know this and have studied this many times. But it is always good to be reminded of things, and I am always in need of improvement.

On a little "side note" if you will, submission starts with your heart attitude. The Lord has taught me a lot about my attitude over the past couple years. At one point, when I was leading a bible study group with several other young girls, I put together a whole study on one's attitude, because of all that the Lord was teaching me. However, it seems that no matter how many times the Lord has worked in my heart on something, time goes by, and before I know it, I need to go back and be re-taught, or at least reminded of the things that I've learned (like with submission). Anyway, I want to end this post by sharing a quote with you by Charles Swindle. My Dad uses this quote at his manager's meetings, and brings it up in our family Bible Studies quite often as we should be reminded of it daily. Someday, when we have our own house, I want to do a stencil of it on a wall, or something like that. I want to put it in a prominent place so that I can see it daily.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company... a Church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past ...we cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude...

I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me, and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitude."

- Charles Swindol -